Light as Invisible Architecture: The Case of Ritsos’ Moon Sonata at the Athens Festival

Abstract

The current paper will explore the intangible quality of light to create space which is transient during the performance yet transforms the solidity of space into narrative and dramaturgy, giving the audience the opportunity to connect with the endless theme of loss. The author, drawn by her current practice as a lighting designer, will explore the notion of space and time in a performance in an industrial space which has strong links to the urban memory of Athens (Athens Festival venue in Pireos 260), and how light can transcend time and the space in which the performance is placed in. The paper will present the findings of the 2015 performance at the Athens Festival, directed by Nanouris, music by Xarchakos with Marinella on the lead role, and Alexiadou as light designer.

Moonlight Sonata (1956), the earliest of Ritsos’ compositions from the Fourth Dimension, has a particular form and atmosphere and is the beginning of a new era that leaves room for light to inhabit a storytelling space with generosity and grace. Inspired by the poet’s most personal life and creations, retrieved from the past experiences, anxieties and emotions, the work revisits the wider space of the Left, to which Ritsos is ideologically and politically included and, therefore, creates space for a “void scenography” in which light takes centre stage. The Moonlight Sonata, one of Ritsos’ best-loved and best-known texts, is a stage monologue, a personal confession, an emotional plea for life and hope, through a flow of symbols that gracefully gives space to abstract interpretation for the lighting designer to create a non-space and time-based habitat for the audience to immerse themselves in the timeless themes of love, belonging, trust and loneliness.